A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that instance, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. comprising part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at one time, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the “scanning”-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
Methods to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation or light include, but are not necessarily limited to, converting a material into a plasma state that has an element, e.g. xenon, lithium or tin, with an emission line in the EUV range. In one such method, often termed electric discharge produced plasma (“DPP”), the plasma may be produced by an electrical discharge between a pair of electrodes. In another method, the desired plasma can be produced by irradiating a target material, such as a droplet, stream or cluster of material having the associated line-emitting element, with a laser beam. The latter process is referred to as laser produced plasma (“LPP”).
For each of these processes, the plasma is typically produced in a sealed vessel, e.g., vacuum chamber, and monitored using various types of metrology equipment. In addition to generating EUV radiation, these plasma processes may also generate undesirable by-products in the plasma chamber, which can include heat, high-energy ions and scattered debris from the plasma formation, e.g., atoms and/or clumps of source material that is not fully ionized in the plasma formation process.
These plasma formation by-products can potentially damage or reduce the operational efficiency of the various plasma chamber optical elements including, but not limited to, the surfaces of metrology detectors, windows used to image the plasma formation process, and in the case of LPP, the laser input window. The heat, high energy ions and/or source material debris may be damaging to the optical elements in a number of ways, including heating them, coating them with materials which reduce light transmission, penetrating into them and, for example, damaging structural integrity and/or optical properties, e.g., the ability of a mirror to reflect light at such short wavelengths, corroding or eroding them and/or diffusing into them.
In addition, some optical elements, e.g., the laser input window, form a part of the vacuum chamber and are thus placed under a stress when a vacuum is present in the plasma chamber. For these elements, deposits and heat can combine to fracture (i.e., crack) the element, thereby resulting in a loss of vacuum and potentially requiring a costly repair.